What Tornado Alley? Seattle, Portland had more tornadoes in 2020 than parts of Kansas

SEATTLE (KOMO) A statistic that seemed too zany to hold for an entire year now looks to do just that: Both Seattle and Portland will likely finish 2020 with more tornadoes than parts of Tornado Alley hotspot Kansas!

SEATTLE (KOMO) – A statistic that seemed too zany to hold for an entire year now looks to do just that: Both Seattle and Portland will likely finish 2020 with more tornadoes than parts of Tornado Alley hotspot Kansas!

The National Weather Service office in Wichita reports that through Dec. 7, their office has yet to have a confirmed tornado report anywhere in their area of coverage, which takes up much of central and southeastern Kansas.

Meanwhile, the Seattle office of the National Weather Service -- which covers much of Western Washington -- did report a confirmed EF-1 tornado in Grays Harbor County on Oct. 12. Portland's office which covers Northwestern Oregon and the southern border counties in southwestern Washington had a whopping three tornadoes this year! One on Jan. 21 outside of Manzanita, one near St. Helens on Nov. 10, and one near Damascus on June 14, according to NWS Portland.

(Note: This graphic says Seattle had 2 preliminary tornado reports and Portland had 5 but there was just the one for Seattle and three confirmed in Portland area. The National Weather Service office in Seattle tells me it issued two separate storm damage reports for that same tornado to cover two separate parts of its track. It counted as "2" tornado reports if you search the NWS tornado database for Seattle but it's just one tornado. A likely similar situation occurred in Portland. That's why the data is marked "preliminary" -- these "extra" tornadoes will get weeded out when the data gets quality controlled after the year.)

Some of the other cities that are very much NOT in Tornado Alley but had more tornadoes in their general region than Wichita:

  • Philadelphia/South New Jersey area: 23
  • Central New York (Albany): 15
  • Portland, Oregon: 3 (confirmed; 5 on preliminary chart)
  • Portland, Maine: 4
  • New York City: 3
  • Boston: 2

San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix join Seattle as notching one tornado this year.

What about Tornado Warnings? Those are when people either report a twister or radar indicates one. Seattle leads Wichita 5-2. Four of the Seattle ones came on Jan. 21 when radar indicated rotation but there were no confirmed touchdowns. The fifth one came the same day as the Grays Harbor tornado.

Portland's tornadoes were sneaky and came without any Tornado Warnings and they have zero for the year so far.

Tornado Warnings, meaning tornadoes have been spotted or radar-indicated, are exceedingly rare in the Pacific Northwest. It had been 1,925 days -- over 5 years! -- since the last Tornado Warning issued by the National Weather Service office in Seattle before that January "outbreak". It's been over nine years since a Tornado Warning has been issued by Spokane.

The National Weather Service in Wichita says neither of their two warnings led to an actual confirmed tornado and 2020 presents the longest stretch without recording a tornado there since 1950! The region reported 28 tornadoes in 2019 -- part of 160 in the entire state of Kansas that year.

But it's not like the Midwest hasn't had its share of tornadoes in 2020. There have been 25 tornado reports by the NWS folks in Goodland, Kansas -- in the northwestern section of the state. And the other two offices in the state had a total of 14 more tornado reports.

It just seems the tornadoes managed to dodge southeastern Kansas!

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